W/AV Wins NorCal Crit Championships!

This past weekend was a good one for our team. The CalCup series continues on and the team is racing hard toward the end of the season.

On Saturday, Fabrice was heavily marked at Winters Road Race but still managed a 2nd place finish from a small breakaway group. Sunday was the Northern California/Nevada District Crit Championship race at Vacaville. Fabrice again was in a break for most of the day, which was brought back on the final lap. Our Ryan Parnes launched out of the pack to take the win with a nice margin over the charging sprinters. With that, he gets the honor of wearing the Elite Crit Champion jersey for the next year. Below is Ryan's report from Vacaville.

Some pictures from the race:
Fabrice in the main break of the day: 1 2 3
Ryan crossing the line: 1 2

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Sorry everyone, I tried to get Rand to ghostwrite this for me, but he didn't go for it.

I had never raced Vacaville before, but I'd been hearing great things about the race for months. Everything they said was true. The course is an amazing 1.1 mile figure eight that manages to fit every cool crit feature into one course, including a solid power-climb, a ripping descent, a chicane before the finish, and last but not least a banked hairpin. Throw in about 6,000 bots dots and an endless row of cones and it makes for one crazy ride.

The team Sunday was Billy, Bo, Fabrice, James, Rand and Rob. We tried to have a bit of a pre-race meeting to hammer out a strategy, but we ended up mostly talking trash and making lewd comments. Maybe we didn't come out of it with a brilliant plan, but it does sort of put you at ease before a big race. (for more on pre-race meetings see Rand's Suisun report).

Things started fast and before I knew it Fabrice was up the road with Aaron Olson (former Pro-Tour rider) and two Berry Boys (Patrick Briggs and Jared Barilleaux). I figured that wasn't ideal so I launched myself on the climb and somehow managed to get up to them. We worked decently together for a number of laps, but I was suffering like a dog, and hurting all the worse because Fabrice looked like he was just noodling to the coffee shop while I was trying not to throw up. So when Aaron opened a gap and Briggs was on the wrong end of it with me I figured I wouldn't be the one to close it. Briggs didn't seem too fired up either and when Aaron jumped to get across we looked at each other and let it go. So there I was, head down, tail tucked, rolling back to the field.

I spent the middle of the race sitting in, licking my wounds and feeling generally horrible. That climb was really hurting and I was wondering if I had it in me to fight it out and contest a crazy sprint for 4th. Cal Giant was blocking and Rand and James were up front marking moves so I just sort of floated around the pack in bewilderment. Then with 7 laps to go I started feeling a bit better. 5 to go: not bad. 3 to go: glimmer of hope. With 2 to go it looked like the break might be coming back and I was in decent position. As we came through with one to go Cal Giant had some guys up front driving the pace and I was sitting maybe 6th wheel or so. Thats when Keith Williams, wheel-ninja and radioman extraordinaire, piped into my ear with some of his patented last lap wisdom, "OH YEAH! YOU'RE ON THAT TRAIN, BABY! RIDE THAT TRAIN! RIDE IT!", which despite his suggestive tone of voice was the most PG stuff I've heard from him at the end of a race.

In the end, Keith's crazy yelling, a lust for the state title and the fear that my sprint is just not up to snuff all came together in some magical way that made it feel as though someone had smacked me in the ass with a hot iron. I attacked into the climb with everything I had and it was an incredible sensation. Then it was anguish, absolute tortured, gasping anguish. But it did the trick. I swung by Fabrice and Aaron with one corner to go and managed to stay clear of the field and not collapse in a heap before I hit the line. I might have gone a little nuts as I finished, and I'm still feelin' high as a kite as I write this.

As always, huge thanks to the team. You just can't have a great result without a ton of help from a solid team and I'm so lucky to be racing with great guys in a great organization. Also, thanks are due to my strategist, Scott Rodamaker, who pointed at that if my sprint sucks, I probably shouldn't save it for the sprint. Brilliant.